This is the chronicles of the Howdyschell family. The founding Torchbearer, Heidi Howdyschell, invites you along to witness the generations of the Howdyschell family as they struggle along with only one person who knows how to do anything at all; the Torchbearer of each generation.

About Me

Thursday, February 16, 2006

Hello again! Well well well, it looks like Heidi has has aged to elder. But wait a minute...in the last entry, she had just had Harry, who had just aged to child. So, okay. The Player admits, alot has happened since then. Yup, alot of stuff. At least Heidi didn't age into elderhood with a dumb outfit. She did pretty well for herself, a long demin skirt with a beautiful belt, and a powder blue sweater set. Yay! Heidi, I am glad to see you have wizened up and gotten rid of the bowling shirt. But, let us rewind a bit. Back to where we left off. We left Heidi blissfully eating gelatin with Remington and Harry at the kitchen table.

Well looky here. Heidi is congratulating Remington on his first woo-hoo. Let's pick it up here, and get you up to date on Remington. Now, the player finds this odd. Remington had his first woo-hoo with Heidi, so this means that Heidi is congratulating Remington on woo-hooing with her. Heh. Well anyway if you will recall, Heidi and Remington constantly Dream Date to keep Remington's aspiration high so he can get job promotions. This feature in the game is coming in very handy.

Here you see Remington leaving for work as a SWAT Team Leader. At this point that means Remington has advanced all the way to level 8, in the Law Enforcement career field. Heidi has pushed Remington up to full cleaning skills. Still don't know if he needs more logic. Anyway, it seemed he was getting a promotion almost every day, so if too many days go by without a promotion, then Heidi will double up on the chess games with ol' Rem. As you can see, Remington is thinking about sex. That is usually what he is thinking about when he steps his foot out the door to go to work. Heidi is still working hard in that area to keep Remington rolling bucks into the Howdyschell bank account, and hopefully permanent plat when he ages to elderhood.

AWWW~ Apparently Remington mailed Heidi a love letter. She looks so happy! Oh and looky at that! Heidi is wearing a general's uniform from the military career field. Congrats, YOU GO GIRL! Another career down, and another point for the ol' scoresheet. That meant it was time for Heidi to get another job, and another career reward for training. She next went into the medical field, and got the TraumaTime "Incision Precision" Surgical Training Station, or, aka the operating dummy. The intent here is to work Heidi through as many jobs as possible before handing the torch over to Harry, not only for the points but for the aspiration reward as well.

Remington will only go through one job, as Heidi not only has HIM to train but she also has Harry. Yes, she is the homework boss.

OOops! Looks like Harry has aged to teen, and Heidi is wearing her "medical specialist" uniform from work. Right about now, Heidi is thinking that Harry is her only heir...but what if something happens to him? Shouldn't there be a 'spare heir?' OH yeah!

Well, Remington was very good to oblige Heidi's wants for a spare heir. Meet Harvey. Doesn't Harvey and Harry look good together? Looks like Harvey inherited his mom's slanted eyes. Dont' get what is going on with the turned down mouth. The Player guesses that comes from Remington....

Hehehe like father, like son. Ok. The Player wants to point out here, that there is a different sofa here than two photos above. Yes, well, there is an extremely good reason for that. See, Harry wanted to crash anywhere but his own bed, and always wanted to crash especially on this green sofa. Even though he had the most expensive single bed for comfort. So, the Player realized the only way to get Harry to keep his big lazy butt off of it was to get an uncomfortable sofa. And it worked! Harry no longer had a desire to sleep there. However, even the cheap sofa was good for.....

Ummmmm yeah. Apparently Harry was so unhappy with his misrable life he could only be amused by wrecking paintings and bouncing on the sofa. At least he never took a swing on the fridge door. Now here the Player really needed to get a clue. Harry grew up in an ok status. He grew to be a Fortune Sim. Liking things like drum sets and such. However, no matter how much of this stuff the Player bought, Harry never seemed to be happy. In fact, the closer to adult status Harry got, the angrier he got. Then, three days before he had his birthday, Headmaster Korey made a visit. Yay! That helped Harry's 'tude a lot. He quit wrecking paintings and bouncing on the sofa when he and Harvey were admitted into Private School.

OK....by this time Remington has made it to Captain Hero. YAY! But apparently...*sigh*...becoming Captian Hero was not his lifetime want. Remington did not go into permanent plat status upon the advent of this promotion. Hmmm. So the only chance the Player has of attaining perm plat for Remington is that his LTW is to reach his golden anniversary upon his birthday to elder.

Hey! Remington has bought home a friend from work. Why, it is Wen from the Opposites Challenge. This Wen is the first version of the Player. See, the Player has used Body Shop to make images of herself two times now. The Wen in the pic above is the first version. You can see her in action in the Opposites Challenge. The second Wen is downloadable here, if you are so inclined to take a look, and maybe even download her into your game. Or not. *shameless plug*

Oh remember Jake Widow from Heidi's college days? Here is part of his family. That is Cassandra on the left, and her twin Alexander on the right. They are one creepy looking family, no? Huh? Ok...ok. Enough of meeting the neighborhood. On with the Howdyschell saga.

The Player acknowledges that much hasn't been said about the 'spare heir' Harvey. Well, fret no more. Here you see Heidi industriously working to teach Harvey some cooking skill. Yeah yeah, the Player just sort of skipped over all of Harvey's baby and toddler years and got right to the skill building. Teaching all the members of the Howdyschell household to cook has been a boon for Heidi. She doesn't have to worry about anyone sitting around getting hungry. The adults just go right into the kitching and whip up a quick salmon to eat. Of course Harvey cannot do that. The best he can do is a bag of cookies. He can't even make a bowl of cereal. (come on, Maxis). So, Heidi teaches him cooking so the very day he grows up, he is on his own in the kitchen. Good plan.

This is important. Doesn't Heidi look a bit wistful? Yes. Poor dear. This is her last sit down at the computer to go job hunting. Turns out...the last job she got was in the art world. Yep, the Howdyschells got a cool looking camera as a present. Why was it Heidi's last job? Why, she had her birthday to elder shortly after this. The Player wanted to leave her with a high paying job in her elder years.

Ahh...Heidi going to work as a Visionary. She looks a bit teary-eyed as she goes along. Thinking about friends made and lost....so far, Heidi has lost 6 friends since leaving University. No time to yak on the phone now, is there Heidi? Having to woo-hoo the unmotivated bum of a husband to the top of his career, holding the hands of two kids everynight to make sure homework was done. Being the Only One Who Knew Anything At all. What a responsibility! Soon, the torch would pass....lucky you are in perm plat! Oh wait a minute...there is still the issue of Remington! Did he turn perm plat upon his birthday to elderhood?

Sadly, no. So he must have an 'x-number of kids' want. He grew up probably in red as a "Brood Bungler". Hopefully he won't be around that long to take up space in the Howdyschell house. After all, once he made Captain Hero, and got Heidi pregnant with Harvey, there was no need for any more woo-hoo. Heidi all of a sudden wasn't so amorous any more. So, this means only one thing...

The torch has passed. Harry has left for University! Look for the next update of Harry's college years on March 5th. Ta-Tah!

Point totals: Let's see. Heidi worked her way through 6 careers during her life. Culinary, (point posted last time) Military, Medical, Show Biz, Criminal, and Art World. Remington had one career, Captain Hero. The torch passed this round. And one shrink visit for Bart Widow when Heidi sim-vaced three skill points from him when she lost some due to a bad decision on the job. Bart is Jake, Cassandra, and Alexanders' brother. You will meet him with Harry at Uni. So that makes a whopping total of 11 points, up 7 from last round.

Other Stats: Once Harry became the Torcholder the Player was finally able to see the stuff he was made of. Harry grew up as a "Wonder Boy". He had 8 cooking skills, 6 Charisma, 8 Body, 9 Logic, 6 Creativity, and 1 Cleaning point. Not bad for not controlling him directly. He only had 2,000 influence points, and very little aspiration goin'. He wants to become Chief of Staff. Somehow, the Player thinks this will not be difficult.

Simoleons: The Heidi Howdyschell ended her duty as the Torcholder with $228,763 simoleons in the bank.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Ah. Doesn't the photo entice us to think; Wow, Heidi is doing very well for herself! She is already a Celebrity Chef and Platinum aspiration to boot! Let's see...*whipping out scoring sheet* my gosh..that is two additional points on the ISBI challenge. What? Oh, that is something the Player keeps track of. You see, the Player gets a point Just Because when a new torchbearer takes control. There is one point for each permanent aspirataion, and one point for each top of career. Heidi had contributed 3 points. Yay! So okay....well, let's start at the beginning on Heidi's sorjourn to the town of Other Challenges. We will be able to discern if there are any other opportunities for points on this generation.

So we find Heidi has moved away from LFT and found a home. Well, her meager amount of funds allowed her to buy a small lot and build a small three room home, not counting the microscopic sized bathroom. And the kitchen and living room are actually one room together, so I suppose it is only a two room house. Hey..but she has carpet and wall paper, and a computer too! Way to go! See, there is Heidi's beloved, Remington Traver. Here Heidi has just asked him to move in/get engaged/get married. Hey he was a pushover, took the bait. The Player is resigned to a small house anyway. Why? Well, with Heidi being the Torchbearer, and the only one who knows anything at all (the only controllable Sim) the Player assumes game play is easier with less distance to travel to boss Remington around. The Player however, wishes to make an official complaint here. Remington came with only $1,000 simoleons, and NO JOB. That myth about the downtownies having money and jobs is well....a myth! Heidi realizes she has her work cut out for her.

The lovbirds began setting up their nest. The first thing Heidi did was sign on to the Internet and peruse the listings lookin' for a job as a Celeb Chef. Ok.. what restaurant is sucker enough to bring on a beginning cook with a degree in Political Science? Well apparently somebody was, she got a job the first day. Heidi's LTW was to become a Chef, so the Player decided to indulge her (and the Player also wanted the point for scoring value). However, Heidi did note there was not offerings for Law Enforcement. Why would she want that? You ask?

Remington is a Family Sim. We knew this because of the little Family Sim icon that shows up on the date panel when Heidi and Remington have a date. So, the Player knows that Family Sims roll "Captain Hero" for a career LTW. Of course, we don't know what Remington's LTW is. It could be 'reach golen anniversary' which will happen by itself, or it could be 'have 6 granchildren' or 'graduate 3 kids from college'. So the Player thinks two of these LTW are doable without having a gazillion kids, and without having to actually control Remington, which is really what this ISBI is all about.

We are assuming Remington wants to be a Captain Hero. According to ISBI rules, there is a particular way to get a job. Since Remington married Heidi without a college degree, Heidi helped out Remington and looked in the newspaper every day until Law Enforcement came up. Yay! On the third day, there it was. However, the Player still had to roll the dice. The Player rolled a 4, which meant Remington had to choose the second listing that came up in the paper. Yay! It was the Law Enforcement job! Things are lookin' swell! Remington leaves for work that night as a security gaurd, totally pumped up on aspiration and we are assuming his needs are well met. After all, he takes care of that himself. As you can see in the picture, Remington is thinkin' about woo-hoo. That is how his girl Heidi keeps him motivated to go to work. Family Sims are just as bad about wanting woo-hoo as Romance Sims are. I guess to make sure their DNA gets carried on. So great for Remington!

In the meantime, all that woo-hooing left Heidi with a little present. So now this begs the question to the Player, who really hates to use Nannies. Yep, our girl Heidi will have to hire a nanny since Remington is untouchable. So ok. The Player, who normally crosses fingers to GET twins, now crosses them that there will only be one child. Heidi's middle begins to expand with child, and in the meantime, she and Remington are at it every day keepin' him happy enough to go to work.

OK here is how it is done. Heidi and Remington "Dream Date" every day. They do this about 12 hours before it is time for Remington to go to work. That is the only way Heidi can pump some aspiration into her husband. Really..the Player knows the layout of the Family Sim wants in dating...hehehe...so Remington gets plenty of wants filled. Here it is:

Now then, at this point Heidi and Remington are ready to sleep. After waking up, there is another kiss, another makeout, then the date ends. Heidi gets up approximately 3 hours before Remington's ride for work comes. Gets him up by turning on the radio. She does the huggy body kissy face to him, ends the date. Wa-Lah! Remington is in platinum and is ready to take care of any lingering needs before the ride to work comes. Yay! So. That is how to keep a Family Sim happy without seeing what his wants are.

Wow go YOU, REMINGTON! Here he is announcing to the 'hood that he has just been promoted to Detective. Wow! That is level 6 in the Law Enforcement field! And all this being done without seeing what his wants/needs are, and without the incredible Noodlesoother!

OK. You might be asking yourself, how does the Player know Remington has all his skills to advance in his job? Welp, the Player don't. The Player does know that Remington is maxed out on his body skills because after Heidi became a Celeb Chef, she went into the Military to get the obstacle course. When she tried to give Remington some training on it, the option wasn't there. Yay! The Player does know that Remington needs some cleaning skill. So okay...here is where the Player did bend the rules ever so slightly. The Player knew that Remington had advanced enough to give him the career reward of the scanner gun. The Player carefully covered the screen where she would be able to see anything at all about Remington, and clicked through to the rewards panel and snatched it out. Yep..oh well..if that is the worse thing the Player does in this challenge then, that ain't bad, really.

Heidi so far as helped train Remington several points in cleaning. But he still needs more. As for the logic skills Remington needs, Heidi plays chess with him. Let's make a note here. The Player remembers how Jeff at Idiots Among Me had an addiction to the game. Well, Heidi helped the Player out has figured out that she can get Remington to stop painting or playing chess by offering a flirt.

That wraps up Remington for this entry. Let's take a look at little Harry. Yes, the bundle of joy has arrived and Heidi and Remington have a delightful son. Harry looks real excited, doesn't he? He has his mom's custom eyes, but that is about it. I guess Harry got a bang on the head whilst being taken care of by the nanny, by the dazed look he has on his face. Incredibly, Harry was all potty trained, walked trained and talk trained! Yes! Heidi found out that if she made the smart milk and left it on the floor little Harry would eventually get hungry and drink it. Then she would dive in and do any type of training the little tyke needed. If the kid followed her around whining for attention, she could just tickle and talk to him once, then he was happy to play with toys until Heidi figured he might be sleepy. But being a Family Sim, Remington was usually quick on the draw to get Harry to bed. That worked out real fine. And, there was only two potty accidents once Harry became trained. Not bad. All toddlers have accidents, don't they? Heidi had to take away the Rabbit Head from Harry, because that is all he wanted to do. Once she did that, he would choose the logic or music toy. It will be interesting once Harry becomes the Torchbearer to see how much Charisma he has.

Doesn't Heidi look blissfully happy? Remington is a nice clean Sim, always wiping down the counters and scrubbing the toilet after a long hard day at the precinct. Apparently, Harry is the same way. He makes his mom and dad's bed every morning before going to school. Heidi has already had little Harry out to the obstical course and the chocoloate making machine and gotten him some skills to start with in life. The Player notes that Heidi trained Remington in cooking skills before his job in Law Enforcement came up so he could cook for himself. She doesn't know how many skills he has, but that last one was a long time in coming. It must be level 7 or 8 at least . That was enough, being that he doesn't need it for his job. Here is where we are going to stop for this week.

STATS: Top of Career: Heidi met Celeb Chef, and is currently and Astronaut in the Military.Remington is a Detective in Law Enfocement. The Player is going to work Heidi thru as many jobs as possible before the torch is passed to Harry.

Total pointsthus far:A whopping 3. :) See you on February 19th, when the next installment will be posted!

Meet Heidi Howdyschell. See how she is waving so gaily? She is a nice girl, on her way to La Fiesta Tech. She came from the Far East on a student exchange program, looking for a little exposure in the United States. Well, her real name would be too difficult for us to pronounce; so we will call her Heidi. She is a bachlorette, her likes are formal wear and brown hair, her dislikes are vampires, and she is Popularity Sim. She wants to graduate Sim State with a degree in poltical science, and wants to become a Celebrity Chef. I don't know how she can get a job as a chef with a degree in political science. Oh well, I am sure she will manage. At any rate, whilst at LFT, Heidi will be partaking in the ISBI program. She got her tuition paid by LFT for taking part. In fact, she is the only student at LFT in the program.

Oh...you are asking...who am I? I am just the narrator. I will keep you abreast of all the intersting little tidbits about the Howdyschells. Howdyschell(s)? You say? Absolutely. I know already, dear readers, that Heidi will never leave the Unites States for her homeland. She will fall hopelessly in love with a man. Yes. So. Let us start at the beginning. That is, Heidi's years at La Fiesta Tech.

Heidi is a very smart girl. She managed during the first semester as a freshman to influence others to do her term paper. How did she get those influence points? Why, by making friends of course. It pays to have friends in high places. Now mind you, Heidi came to the United States knowing nothing. Could not cook American food, could not fix the bathroom sink. Not a single skill point to her name. But that didn't stand in Heidi's way! No sirree! With every friend Heidi made, she gained lots of aspriation points, and was able to find ways to get her skills.

Ah yes. The SimVac. This little gadget has a legendary reputation in the Simming world. With this handy-dandy contraption that looks like a Transformer of a dinosaur, a Sim can gain massive skill points and aspiration. And our girl Heidi put it to good use. Notice her technique here; excellent! Heidi managed to corner the campus streaker and strip him of some of his skills. I hope she didn't receive his skill for fast running. I prefer to see that gentleman moving right along. Notice the lad in the white pants watching the spectacle. That is Jake Widow, one of Heidi's roommates. Being that the ISBI program is not about gaining skill points, Heidi felt free to use it. By all means.

Now, Jake and Heidi really got along nicely. They would sit together and study; eat breakfast together. We can assume that Heidi and Jake would spend the rest of their lives together. Aha....but wait a minute. ISBI rules state that Torchbearer Heidi can't fall in love with some one that has been controlled as a playble Sim in the past. *Sigh*. Oh so sad for Heidi! This is one romance that will have to be put asunder! Jake came from the town of Other Challenges. His mother is Monyette Widow, focus Sim of the Black Widow Challenge. (not blogged). Jake was her fourth or fifth born and played through as a teen by the Player until he left for LFT. What to do..what to do...

Oh yes...the "I saw you kissing another girl!" trick. BAM! Jake, yer out! That leaves our girl Heidi in a dilemma. Time to go lookin' for a guy. By now, Heidi is in her Junior year at LFT. ISBI states she needs to find a mate. That means only one thing! Nightlife! Heidi is on her way Downtown!

Heidi makes several trips Downtown, and can't seem to find even one guy who will give her one lightening bolt. How frustrating! On this particular trip, Heidi is surrounded by female vampires. Hmmm...didn't I say that vampires were a turn off for Heidi? Everytime she went downtown, Contessa Kay and company would show up, no matter where she went. Heidi was lookin' for Mr. Big, but never saw him in repeated trips to town. She would get vampires instead. Well, it was time to Scope.

The Crypto-Night-Club seemed to be a good a place as any to find a man. Let's see. The first one she spots is Goopy Gilsboro. Ehhh...I don't think so Heidi. Try again. It's not that Mr. Gilsboro is errr...creepy...in anyway, it is just that the Player knows Mr. Gilsboro doesn't have a job and is a very sloppy Sim. Heidi has zero neat points herself, so she is going to kind of need sombody who will clean the toilet and pick up after her sloppy self. Okkaaay....nope...not Amin Sims either Heidi. He has beady eyes. Try again.

Well, graduation day came. Heidi was sittin' pretty. She had over $51,000 simoleons in the bank. WOW! You say! Well, she had two college mates that threw $1,200 in there every semester, plus she sold a novel for $3,100 simoleons. And dear Remington left her many expensive date gifts. Yes. *ahem*. She had full skills after Sim-Vaccing many Sims on campus, she had money, she had a man who loved her. Heidi had visions of a grand palace with gold guilding on the walls and golden faucets in the bathroom waiting for her back in Other Challenges. Yep, she was gonna live good. Not have to struggle at all. You've come a long way, Baby! Oh yes...she graduated Summa Cum Laude in Political Science; made Secret Society and Big Sim on Campus. Way to go! Nothing will stand in your way now honey!

Well, almost nothing will stand in your way. Yeah. Except for the Player clicking on 'throw graduation party' before you have had a chance to go furniture shopping. That's right. Heidi was so caught up in the moment of finally getting through University and partying, she plain old forgot to buy her furniture. Heidi moved to Other Challenges with a grand total of $5,400 before the $20,000 move in bonus. Yeah. And not a stick of furniture to her name. But she sure looks darn good in that bowling shirt! Looks like Heidi's child will get the money when he/she comes to Uni, thanks to placeholders!

Well, time to move on to Other Challenges, where Heidi will marry Remington and have a child! See you there!

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Well, here we are. I am just readin' the rules right now for the I'm Surrounded By Idiots Challenge. hmmm...sound ominous doesn't it?

OK...I play TS2, aka TheSims2. I do lots of challenges. I am only getting into blogging them, to show fellow Simmers my progress, maybe to brag a little. :) I am currently working on Prosperity Falls. However, I have been doing that challenge for almost a year, and it is time for a break. Need to do something that doesn't hinge on having babies and carrying on the generations. ISBI sounds like a lot of fun. I found it right here at Blogger. If you wanna read the rules, you can right here.